Angelina Jolie’s ‘Jewish Gene’ Breast Cancer Surgery Saves Lives, Doctor Says

Still Stunning: Angelina Jolie smiles for fans at a movie premiere in London. The Hollywood superstar was making her first appearance since she announced she underwent a double mastectomy over breast cancer fears. Image by getty images

By Forward Stafff October 14, 2013

Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo double mastectomy is saving lives as more women seek to be tested for the ‘Jewish gene’ mutation that caused her breast cancer, her plastic surgeon says.

The Hollywood superstar’s cosmetic surgeon, speaking out for the first time since the Oscar winner revealed her procedure five months ago, told the Daily News that many women who never knew about the silent killer are now being tested.

“I’m seeing in my practice already women who are saying, ‘I was inspired by that to get gene testing,’” said Beverly HIlls surgeon Dr. Jay Orringer, who performed Jolie’s reconstruction, told the paper. “I think it’s going to have a tremendously lasting impact.”

The stunning Jolie, Hollywood’s highest paid actress and a United Nations humanitarian, announced in May that she had endured three months of procedures to have both breasts removed because of her high genetic risk of breast cancer.

Jolie carries the BRCA gene mutation that leads to dramatically higher rates of breast cancer. Although she is not Jewish, the deadly mutation is especially common among Ashkenazi Jewish women.

Jolie tested positive for a harmful mutation in one of the BRCA genes, making her about five times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not carry this mutation, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Mutations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 60 to 80 percent.

Jolie’s risk was amplified by the fact that her mother died from breast cancer at age 56, raising the stakes that she could have a cancer at a younger age.

Jolie said she underwent the surgery to spare her children from the agony she witnessed as her mother struggled with breast cancer for a decade.

That is the case for many women who seek out genetic counseling, said Dr. Susan Klugman, director of reproductive genetics at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, who has done BRCA testing on thousands of women. Klugman said counselors help women work through what it would mean to learn they are positive for the gene.

With Reuters

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO